CMLL World Tag Team Championship

History

Starting in 1957 the Mexican Lucha libre, or professional wrestling, promotion Empresa Mexicana de Lucha Libre ("Mexican Wrestling Enterprise"; EMLL) began promoting the Mexican National Tag Team Championship as the top championship of their tag team division. In 1991 EMLL was rebranded Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre ("World Wrestling Council"; CMLL) after the promotion left the National Wrestling Alliance in the late 1980s. In 1992 then-CMLL executive Antonio Peña left CMLL along with a number of the promotion's wrestlers to form Asistencia Asesoría y Administración (AAA). Among the wrestlers that left CMLL were then-reigning Mexican National Tag Team Champions Misterioso and Volador. The Mexican National Tag Team Championship was not owned by CMLL but rather by the Mexico City Boxing and Wrestling Commission and the commission allowed AAA to take control of the championship. In early 1993 CMLL decided to create their own tag team championship to replace the Mexican National Tag Team Championship and introduced the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. The team of Canek and Dr. Wagner Jr. faced off against Vampiro Canadiense and Pierroth Jr. in the finals of a 16-team tournament to determine the first champions, with Canek and Wagner Jr. winning the match to become the first tag team champions. The duo would hold the title until El Canek left CMLL in November 1994. CMLL held a 32-team tournament from November 11 to December 16, 1994. In the finals "Los Cowboys" (Silver King and El Texano) defeated El Satánico and Emilio Charles Jr. to become the second ever CMLL World Tag Team Champions. Six months later Los Cowboys would lose the title to their longtime rivals los Headhunters.

In September 1996 the champions, the team of Atlantis and Lizmark, were stripped of the championship after an inconclusive match against los Headhunters. In the subsequent eight-team tournament brothers Silver King and Dr. Wagner Jr. captured the title with a victory over Dos Caras and Último Dragón. The title would be vacated once again only six months later as Silver King left CMLL to work for World Championship Wrestling (WCW). Dr. Wagner Jr. teamed up with Emilio Charles Jr. and the two former champions won an eight-team tournament in August 1997. The title would be vacated once again in 1998 when one half of the tag team champions, Mr. Niebla, was injured. Bestia Salvaje and Emilio Charles Jr. became champions by winning an 8-team tournament and began working a storyline with the team of Negro Casas and El Hijo del Santo, whom they traded the title back and forth with over the next year. In early 1999 El Hijo del Santo left CMLL forcing them to vacate the title once again. Los Guerreros del Infierno ("The Warriors from the Inferno"; Último Guerrero and Rey Bucanero) defeated Mr. Niebla and Villano IV in a tournament final bringing some stability to the title as they have not been vacated since then. Guerrero and Bucanero has held the title three times since then and Guerrero has teamed with Dr. Wagner Jr. and Atlantis to win the title twice more for Los Guerreros del Infierno. CMLL held a number one contenders tournament in both 2008 and in 2013, using the tournament to build the credibility of the tournament winners. Both the 2008 winners, Averno and Mephisto, and the 2013 winners, Rush and La Máscara would go on to win the championship.

In 2000 CMLL revived the CMLL Arena Coliseo Tag Team Championship after it had been dormant since the 1980s. The title became a secondary tag team championship for CMLL, primarily for younger, lower ranked wrestlers. The Guadalajara branch of CMLL has intermittently promoted the Occidente (western) tag team championship, a local championship that is not defended outside the Mexican state of Jalisco.

Reigns

The current tag team champions are Negro Casas and Shocker, having defeated the team of La Máscara and Rush on June 13, 2014. This is the sixth reign for Casas and the third for Shocker, together they are the 37th overall champions and the 28th duo to hold the championship. On January 22, 2016 it was announced that Shocker had undergone knee surgery due to a severe injury that had kept him out of the ring since mid-December, 2015. it was announced he was expected not to be able to compete for around four months. No announcements were made in regards to the status of tag team championship.

Negro Casas and Último Guerrero share the record for individual reigns with six, and three teams are tied for most title reigns as a team with Guerrero and Rey Bucanero, Averno and Mephisto and Negro Casas and Hijo del Santo, who all have three reigns. Los Guerreros de la Atlantida (Dragón Rojo Jr. and Último Guerrero) held the title for 640 days, which is the longest reign of any team while Último Guerrero's six reign combine to 1,923 days. Último Guerrero and Dr. Wagner Jr. held the title for seven days and are thus the team with the shortest reign to date. CMLL has been forced to declare the championship vacant on eight different occasions since its creation in 1993, which meant that there were no champions for a period of time. The title has been declared vacant twice because one of the champions (El Canek and Silver King respectively) left CMLL, and four times due to a major injury to one of the champions. On one occasion CMLL held up the championship, vacating the championship until a rematch between the teams of Místico/Héctor Garza and Averno/Mephisto, a match that Místico and Héctor Garza won to become two-times champions. On February 5, 1999 El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas defeated Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio Jr. by disqualification, which in CMLL meant that they also won the championship. Casas and Hijo del Santo refused to win the championship in that matter, vacating the championship until the two teams could have a rematch. Casas and Hijo del Santo won the rematch without controversy to win the championship once more.

As the CMLL World Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling championship, it is not actually won or lost competitively but instead championship changes are decided by the officials and the bookers of CMLL. The title is awarded after the chosen team "wins" a match to maintain the illusion that professional wrestling is a competitive sport. Championship matches usually take place under best two-out-of-three falls rules. On occasion single fall title matches have taken place, especially when promoting CMLL title matches in Japan, conforming to the traditions of the local promotion. An example of this was when Bushi won the CMLL World Welterweight Championship in a one-fall match on a New Japan Pro Wrestling show in 2015.

1993

The CMLL World Tag Team Championship was the last of the CMLL branded championships to be created in the years immediately following the name change to Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre. Until early 1993 the Mexican National Tag Team Championship had served as the main tag team title, but the title moved to AAA when the champions left CMLL to jump to AAA leaving CMLL without a tag team championship. CMLL co-promoted the tournament with the Universal Wrestling Association (UWA) with the tournament spread out between CMLL and UWA shows, the tournament started on February 26, 1993 featuring wrestlers from both promotions. The three falls final match was spread out over three shows, with one fall of the match on each of the shows. The finals took place on March 19 on a CMLL show, followed by a second fall on March 21 at a UWA show and the finals on March 26 on CMLL's Super Viernes show. The tournament was won by Dr. Wagner Jr. a CMLL regular, and El Canek who had been synonymous with the UWA for over a decade at that point in time.

1994

In the summer of 1994 El Canek was planning on leaving CMLL, which meant that CMLL had to make plans for the tag team championship that Canek held at the time alongside Dr. Wagner Jr. The decision was made to hold a 16-team tournament to determine the next champions. The tournament started on July 22, 1994 and ran until August 5. As it turned out El Canek stayed in CMLL longer than expected and was still working for them by the time El Texano and Silver King won the tournament. CMLL named the winning team the "number one contenders", but before they got a chance to wrestle against Canek and Dr. Wagner Jr., Canek left CMLL. Without a championship team to defend against El Texano and Silver King CMLL organized a second 16-team tournament to determine who would wrestle the previous tournament winners for the vacant championship. The second tournament, which ran from November 18 until December 2 featured several wrestlers that also competed in the first tournament, most with different partners. The second tournament was won by El Satánico and Emilio Charles Jr., who ended up losing to El Texano and Silver King on December 16, 1994. With their victory El Texano and Silver King became the second CMLL Tag Team Champions.

February 1997

On October 25, 1996 Los Headhunters defeated then reigning CMLL World Tag Team Champions Atlantis and Lizmark to win the titles. After the match was over Los Headhunters continued to attack both of their opponents, which led to the referee disqualifying the team, negating the championship change. Los Headhunters took the championship belts with them, ignoring that they were not actually the champions. The storyline was that the team declared themselves the tag team champions, but CMLL did not have the same opinion, declaring the titles vacant instead. CMLL followed up the decision to vacate the championship by holding an eight-team tournament that spanned their February 21 and February 28, 1997 Super Viernes shows. In the end, the brother team of Dr. Wagner Jr. and Silver King defeated Dos Caras and Último Dragón to become the seventh overall champions.

August 1997

The team of Silver King and Dr. Wagner Jr. had held the championship since winning a tournament on February 2, 1997, but in August, 1997 Silver King left CMLL to work for Promo Azteca and the U.S. based World Championship Wrestling (WCW). CMLL held a two-night, eight-team tournament to fill the void left by Silver King leaving. The finals took place on August 29, where Dr. Wagner Jr. and his new partner Emilio Charles Jr. defeated los Headhunters to become the eight overall champions.

1998

In the fall of 1998 Mr. Niebla suffered an injury while holding the CMLL World Tag Team Championship with Shocker. Due to the injury Mr. Niebla was unable to compete so CMLL declared the championship vacant and put together an eight-team tournament to crown new champions. The tournament started on October 30 and lasted until to November 13 where the team of Bestia Salvaje and Scorpio Jr. defeated El Satánico and Dr. Wagner Jr. to become the tenth over all tag team champions.

2000

On June 16, 2000 the CMLL World Tag Team Championship was announced as vacant. The official explanation was that co-champion Negro Casas voluntarily gave up the championship to "give other teams a chance", but in reality his partner, El Hijo del Santo, had stopped working for CMLL. CMLL organized a 16-team tournament from June 23 through August 4, 2000, with the finals being at CMLL's Entre Torre Infernal pay-per-view. The finals of the tournament was set to be Los Infernales ("The Infernal Ones"; Rey Bucanero and Último Guerrero) against the team of Emilio Charles Jr. and Mr. Niebla but Emilio Charles Jr. had suffered an injury before the show began. As a result, Los Infernales were declared the new champions. The team was then ordered to defend the championship against Mr. Niebla and his new partner Villano IV so there was still a championship match on the show. Los Infernales retained the championship. They later successfully defended against Mr. Niebla and Emilio Charles Jr. on August 18, 2000.

Number one contenders tournament 2008

In January 2008 CMLL put together a 16-team tournament to determine which team would get a title match against then-champions Atlantis and Último Guerrero. The tournament took place over three weeks, with two qualifying blocks and then the final match in the third week. The finals saw former CMLL World Tag Team Champions Los Hijos del Averno ("The Sons of Hell"; Averno and Mephisto) defeating the team of Dos Caras Jr. and La Sombra. On February 1, 2008 Averno and Mephisto defeated Atlantis and Último Guerrero to become the 25th overall champions.

Number one contenders tournament 2013

In September, 2013 CMLL arranged a 16-team tournament to determine which duo would be next in line to get a match for the CMLL World Tag Team Championship. In the end, the team of La Máscara and Rush defeated the team of Atlantis and La Sombra. The duo would be awarded the championship on September 18, 2013 when champions Rey Bucanero and Tama Tonga were unable to defend the title due to Bucanero being injured. Months later La Máscara, Rush and La Sombra formed Los Ingobernables during La Máscara and Rush's tag team title reign.